Eltham and Chislehurst Tower Outing

29^th October 2005

 

The Eltham and Chislehurst tower outing this year went to mid Kent. 19 ringers made it bright and early to a misty Chart Sutton for the only 6 of the day.

 

Next it was onto Frittenden where we arrived to find a captive audience for our ringing - sheep in the church yard!

 

Headcorn was the last tower before a welcome lunch. An unusual staircase lead to the ringing room and some pretty good ringing was managed on this heavy 8.

 

The pub was just across the road. The food had been pre-ordered but they obviously had not been warned about ringers thirsts as only one barmaid was left to manage on her own. The food was impressively quick though and began appearing well before the drinks had been sorted.

 

A lock out almost occurred at Marden but luckily the key holder lived next door to the church and came straight over after a phone call to her.

 

There were no such problems at Brenchley, the final tower of the day, but the fourth was incredible deep set and one of the more experienced ringers even had to admit defeat trying to pull it off.

 

A feature of these outings is going to a tearoom to round off the day and this time was no exception with the added reason that it was Roger's birthday. Cherrytree's did us proud with endless tea, sandwiches and some enormous slices of cake. The walls and shelves were heaving under an amazing amount of old bric a brac with various people showing their age by remembering buying some of the items!

 

Thanks go to Roger and Len (who unfortunately could not make the outing himself due to his recent move away from Eltham into Kent - his organisation skills will certainly be missed at Chislehurst and Eltham) for organising the towers and tearooms.

 

 

Page last updated:31 October 2005